Go Wide to Go Far

Structured Innovation

In 1925, AT&T formed Bell Labs to drive technological breakthroughs in telephony. But Bell Labs quickly grew into so much more - a legendary incubator of Nobel Prize-winning innovation across disciplines.

Unlike typical corporate R&D, Bell Labs instituted processes to foster creativity on a massive scale. Scientists from diverse backgrounds were gathered together and given resources, funding, and freedom to explore blue-sky research.

Daily interdisciplinary interactions created endless opportunities for serendipitous discoveries. Structured programs like the ‘Mathematics Symposium’ accelerated knowledge sharing. Managers facilitated connections between departments, aiding cross-pollination from theoretical to applied uses.

The results were spectacular. Bell Labs gave us the transistor, laser, information theory, radio astronomy, cellular technology and more. By systematically expanding perspective and connecting ideas, Bell Labs compounded expertise into trailblazing, world-changing innovations.

Bell Labs was able to run its “invention factory” by adopting several key strategies:

• Gathering top talent across disciplines - Bell Labs recruited leading thinkers in physics, mathematics, material science, engineering, and more. This diversity of knowledge was foundational.
• Providing resources and freedom - Researchers were given well-equipped labs, generous funding, and the freedom to explore blue-sky ideas without corporate pressures. This enabled long-term vision.
• Encouraging interactions - The physical layout and social culture at Bell Labs facilitated casual encounters and knowledge sharing between departments. Serendipitous conversations sparked insights.
• Sponsoring knowledge sharing programs - Formal programs like the Mathematics Symposium connected researchers across specialties to share emerging work and identify applications. This aided cross-pollination.
• Bridging theory and application - Managers actively connected theoretical scientists with development engineers to transfer fundamental discoveries into practical inventions and products.
• Supporting external collaborations - Researchers were encouraged to publish, present at conferences, and collaborate with external universities and partners. This multiplied opportunities.
• Cultivating generalists - Bell Labs developed broad thinkers who could see connections between disparate disciplines and translate between specialties.

Bell Labs pioneered how organizations can harness diverse knowledge through structured programs to achieve consistent breakthroughs. Now let's explore why this approach is critical for startups striving to build a lasting competitive advantage.

Innovation may seem like wizardry with sparks of genius and eureka moments. But the reality is grittier. True inventive breakthroughs require systematic work.

This article is directed at the founders and management of early-stage tech startups. These companies need constant innovation, yet conventional wisdom preaches narrow specialization. Here, we’ll explore why broad experience enables innovation, and we’ll explain how structured innovation processes can be used to build a strong competitive moat.

Key Steps to Structured Innovation

• Master diverse skills - broad expertise reveals insights specialists lack.
• Study innovators in history - systematically combine ideas across fields.
• Recognize cognitive biases - commit to sound decision hygiene.
• Run structured sessions to harness your team’s multifaceted expertise.
• Balance breadth and depth - avoid false dichotomies through systems thinking.

Range

David Epstein's book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" explores the idea that in many fields, especially those that are complex and unpredictable, generalists—not specialists—are primed to excel. Epstein argues against the conventional wisdom that early specialization is the best path to success. Instead, he proposes that a broad range of experiences and a diverse skill set can provide the foundation for creative problem-solving and innovation.

Here are some of the most important teachings from this work.

1. Breadth vs. Depth:

The book emphasizes the value of breadth of knowledge and experience. In rapidly changing and complex fields, the ability to integrate diverse pieces of knowledge can be more important than having deep expertise in a single area. For startups, depth in a narrow domain can leave blind spots, while breadth connects dots between fields. Founders with wide interests grasp insights specialists lack.

Startups journey through darkness full of hidden obstacles. Like cavers exploring unmapped tunnels, they need more than a narrow flashlight for navigation. Range provides the wide illumination needed to traverse ambiguity and change course when needed.

1. Cultivating Range:

Epstein explores strategies for cultivating range, such as engaging in diverse hobbies and interests, taking on multiple roles or jobs, and embracing lifelong learning. These practices can foster the ability to think more flexibly and to approach problems from multiple perspectives.

For founders, actively building broad range, or ‘going wide,’ is invaluable. Learning new skills like coding or marketing brings fresh angles. Reading widely across disciplines synthesizes more ideas. Job hopping across different industries connects disparate dots. Building a toolkit of diverse capabilities prevents rigid thinking and unlocks innovation. Range allows founders and team members to envision possibilities, make original connections, and empathize with diverse users. 

1. Grit and Quitting:

While grit and perseverance are often praised, Epstein also recognizes the value in quitting strategically. Knowing when to quit can be advantageous when it frees up resources to pursue more promising opportunities. 

For early-stage tech founders, this can mean promptly pivoting away from product ideas or features that testing reveals won't gain traction. Rather than wasting months polishing and perfecting an idea no one wants, founders should quickly shift resources to higher potential, under-served segments of their market. Successful founders focus on quickly testing assumptions and are ready to change course based on user feedback.

1. The Outside View:

Generalists are more likely to bring an "outside view" to a problem, challenging the status quo and innovating through analogy and cross-pollination of ideas across different domains.

Early-stage can benefit from this outside perspective. Rather than accepting an industry's standard practices and competitive landscape as fixed, an outside view allows founders to question assumptions and envision disruptive alternatives. For example, Airbnb applied the outside view of hospitality and social connections to imagine a new model for lodging. Stripe brought an outside view from ease-of-use consumer services to improve business payments. By leveraging diverse experiences from outside their narrow domain, founders can identify problems that industry veterans have become blind to and conceive better solutions.

1. The 'Wicked' World:

The author distinguishes between "kind" and "wicked" learning environments. In "kind" environments, patterns repeat over and over, and feedback is extremely accurate and usually immediate. In contrast, "wicked" environments feature hidden or misleading feedback, and the rules may change unpredictably. 

For early-stage tech companies, the marketplace is usually a "wicked" environment. Customer behavior evolves rapidly, competitors are unpredictable, and feedback can be misleading due to small sample sizes. Startups must embrace this uncertainty, question assumptions continually, expect setbacks, and be ready to swiftly adapt. Rather than relying on established formulas, they must experiment relentlessly. A tolerance for ambiguity, combined with agile iteration, allows startups to uncover validating signals amidst the noise.

Historical Examples of the Power of Range

Although experience is the best teacher, we can’t rely on personal experience for all we need to learn. There are an enormous number of great authors and books that can help us widen our knowledge base and expand our perspective. Here I summarize key insights from works that widened my thinking on innovation. These books dispelled narrow views in favor of integrative wisdom from diverse fields. 

The key lessons I'll highlight:

• Cognitive biases limit our judgment - commit to sound decision hygiene.
• History reveals how innovators combine specialties.
• Biographies show how pioneers crossed disciplines.
• Business books stress re-examining assumptions

Synthesizing broad teachings kindles the creative spark. With an open and disciplined mindset, we can make once unimaginable visions real.

Decision-Making

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: This seminal work examines the psychological basis for common biases and errors in human judgment. It is essential reading for creating quality data and understanding cognitive limitations. The book explains system 1 (fast, instinctive) vs. system 2 (slow, analytical) thinking. Knowing their limitations helps make sound judgments. 

For example, relying too much on heuristics or first impressions can lead to bias. Overconfidence, loss aversion, and the sunk cost fallacy are cognitive biases that inventors and entrepreneurs need to be aware of when making decisions under uncertainty. Priming effects and emotional states influence decisions, so innovators need processes to remove environmental noise and make rational choices. Mental models help enforce system 2 thinking. Innovators should construct models about reality to frame problems effectively before acting.

Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein: The authors explore how random variability ("noise") in human judgment undermines reliability. Reducing noise is crucial for consistent innovation. The book examines how judgment varies between people (disagreement), within the same person over time (instability), and even simultaneous multiple judgments by the same person (inconsistency). This “noise” undermines predictive accuracy.

Strategies to reduce noise include averaging across judgments, keeping decision processes consistent, and avoiding ambiguity. Structured rubrics and pre-committed criteria help. For innovative ideas, tools like red teaming and prediction markets can identify flaws and assumptions that individuals will overlook on their own. Noise reduction is aided by cognitive diversity. People with different perspectives will not make all the same errors, allowing more robust joint decisions. The key is creating processes that overcome human cognitive limitations to produce sound judgments needed for innovation. Reducing bias and noise improves decision quality.

History of Innovation

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson: This engaging history examines the breakthroughs, collaborations, and lucky accidents that produced computing and the internet. Understanding this foundation can spark new innovations.

For example, The Innovators describes the collaboration between Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage and shows how such a pairing led to the analytical engine, the world’s first programmable computer. Lovelace provided critical insights into the analytical engine's capabilities despite lacking technical expertise. In addition, Alan Turing's work decoding Nazi messages in WWII expanded his mastery of algorithms and computational logic, which he later applied to early computing. Cross-pollinating between cryptography and computation advanced both fields. And the partnership between Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore combined expertise in physics, engineering, and chemistry to invent the integrated circuit and microchip revolution.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner: Gertner profiles the legendary Bell Labs in its heyday, unpacking what made it a powerhouse of Nobel Prize-winning innovation across disciplines. The lessons are applicable today.

For example, the book tells how Bell Labs gathered specialists across physics, material science, engineering, and mathematics. This allowed Claude Shannon to draw on diverse knowledge to formalize information theory. Researchers leveraged Bell Labs' interconnected web of expertise to create pivotal inventions like the transistor, laser, and photovoltaic cell. Daily interactions and collaborations compounded knowledge. Management cultivated a creative interdisciplinary culture that encouraged exploring ideas without pressure. This freedom enabled serendipitous discoveries. Scientists crossed between the lab and manufacturing plants, causing exchanges of insights that improved both theoretical and applied outcomes.

Biographies of Innovators

Professor Maxwell's Duplicitous Demon: The Life and Science of James Clerk Maxwell by Brian Clegg: This biography provides fascinating insights into Maxwell's extraordinary intellect and the thought experiments he used to conceptualize electromagnetism and thermodynamics. The book discusses how Maxwell leveraged his recreational interest in poetry and philosophy to conceptualize theoretical physics problems through imaginary entities like the "Demon" that violated the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This thought experiment led to groundbreaking insights. His broad abilities in mathematics, astronomy, optics and engineering allowed him to unify concepts across disciplines to derive his equations describing electromagnetism. Specialists in each field had failed to make these connections.

Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics by Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon: By profiling the intertwined lives of Faraday and Maxwell, this book examines the collaboration and successive breakthroughs that led to the discovery of electromagnetic fields—fundamentally changing our technological capabilities. The book tells how Michael Faraday sought out diverse scientific mentors and self-educated across fields including chemistry and physics. This breadth exposed him to the study of electricity that specialists had neglected. Faraday drew on his experience building machines and tinkering with technology to envision novel experimental apparatus to study electromagnetism. This practical skill combined with theoretical knowledge.

Business Innovation

The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen: Christensen's classic work explains how leading companies often miss disruptive innovations because they focus too much on their best customers and investors. Essential reading for innovators and executives. The book discusses how Polaroid's narrow product focus caused them to miss how their broad technology capabilities could have disrupted photography and imaging. Greater perspective could have led to digital imaging innovation. It also examines how IBM's initial success with mainframes boxed their vision. Lack of range prevented them from rapidly adapting to the personal computer revolution.

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore: Moore offers indispensable guidance on how to adapt and market disruptive innovations to appeal to mainstream customers. Doing so is key to widespread adoption.

Here’s one relevant example from Crossing the Chasm:

• Moore outlines the technology adoption life cycle, which categorizes customers into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards based on their openness to new products.
• He explains the critical "chasm" that exists between early adopters and the early majority. Early adopters are willing to take risks on new innovations, while the early majority want proven reliability.
• Crossing this chasm requires shifting marketing from focusing on product features to emphasizing benefits that solve real customer pain points. Messaging must resonate with pragmatists, not just visionaries.
• For example, when personal computers were new, ads highlighted features. To cross the chasm, ads emphasized how PCs made businesses more productive and efficient through practical applications like word processing.
• Case studies in the book demonstrate how disruptive technologies must adapt branding and sales pitches to make the leap from niche novelty to mass acceptance.

Moore provides a framework for understanding customer adoption patterns and transitioning from specialized markets to mainstream success. 

Structured Invention Sessions

In addition to cultivating individual range, early-stage companies can accelerate innovation by holding structured group invention sessions. These sessions bring together specifically selected participants with diverse knowledge and perspectives for intense creative ideation.

For example, the company could convene a two-day invention session focused on a high-priority challenge or opportunity. 8-12 participants across functions like technology, design, business strategy, and marketing could be chosen based on their range of expertise and creative styles.

The session kicks off by clearly framing the objectives and sharing background on customer needs, market dynamics, technical requirements, and prior solutions attempted. Participants then diverge through techniques like individual silent brainstorming, affinity mapping to identify themes, and targeted prompts to spur imaginative ideas.

Next, ideas are consolidated, and participants converge by sharing concepts, building on others’ suggestions, and evaluating feasibility through techniques like dot voting. Finally, the most promising inventions are refined through storyboarding, user scenarios, and prototyping.

After the intensive session, the inventions with the highest potential impact and feasibility move into a structured incubation process including market validation, technical experimentation, and IP protection.

Regular invention sessions keep innovation vibrant by systematically harnessing the company's diversity. The structured process bounds creativity within strategic needs while allowing unexpected breakthroughs. As successes accumulate, the process can be expanded to include selecting external participants such as university researchers or key users.

Invention sessions provide low-risk, high-reward immersion in diverse thinking. When organized well, they compound range into catalytic innovations.

Practical Tips

Here are some practical tips for cross-pollinating ideas across fields and improving decision-making:

Leveraging Diverse Perspectives:

• Talk to experts in other disciplines about the problems you are trying to solve - they will offer insights you may not consider.
• Attending conferences and events outside your industry - interacting with people with different experiences sparks new connections.
• Form collaborations and brainstorming groups with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Use analogical thinking - consciously try to make connections between your challenge and solutions from unrelated domains.

Enhancing Decision Hygiene:

• Identify common decision-making biases and consciously try to avoid them - do pre-mortems, consider contrarian viewpoints, watch for overconfidence.
• Break complex decisions into smaller parts and make each part separately.
• Use checklists and structured processes for critical decisions - this reduces bias and compensates for limits of memory and attention.
• Have accountability partners who can question your thinking and prevent you from being too insular.
• Set aside time to reflect on decisions before acting - don't just rely on your initial intuition.
• Recognize when it's time to pivot - be ready to change course rather than sticking with a failing decision too long.

The most effective innovators bring together diverse viewpoints, draw analogies between disparate domains, and stay flexible and balanced in their decision-making. With broad perspective and rigorous critical thinking, you are primed to turn challenges into creative breakthroughs.